Testy Area 51 (3 Viewers)

[Mike Frezon]

How else are you going to boil the water?

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Too much boiling going on in certain cities.

 

[Steve Christou]

Wasn't it Shakespeare who said the first thing we should do is kill all the lawyers? A bit harsh innit?

My latest video subject is Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The Charles Dickens of America, I've been reading up on him. 'He grew up in Missouri in a slave-holding family. He served as a second lieutenant in a Confederate militia for two weeks, and his desertion led many to describe his loyalty to the Confederate cause as halfhearted.' Mark Twain was very quotable -

“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.”
“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”
“If you don’t read the papers you are uninformed, if you read the papers you are misinformed.”
"I am not 'an' American, I am 'the' American."
“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.”
“Golf is a good walk spoiled.”
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,”

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I suggest you try his partly-finished book Letters From The Earth. It's a critique of the Bible. When he died, he left instructions to his heirs to burn a manuscript in his desk drawer. Naturally his heirs didn't do this, but were shocked enough that they withheld publication until IIRC the 1960s. https://www.cs.umd.edu/~mvz/bible/ltrs-from-earth.pdf

 

[Mike Frezon]

My fave Twin quote:

 

[Steve Christou]

Nice find Mike, Mark Twain with a dog. Well he also liked cats.

"Mark Twain—the great humorist and man of American letters—was also a great cat lover. When his beloved black cat Bambino went missing, Twain took out an advertisement in the New York American offering a $5 reward to return the missing cat to his house at 21 Fifth Avenue in New York City. It described Bambino as “Large and intensely black; thick, velvety fur; has a faint fringe of white hair across his chest; not easy to find in ordinary light.”



I searched for a photo of Charles Dickens with a cat, nada. There was an illustration instead.



"One of most important and influential writers in history, Charles Dickens once said, “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” He would sit entranced for hours while writing, but when his furry friends needed some attention, they were notorious for extinguishing the flame on his desk candle. In 1862, he was so upset after the death of his favorite cat, Bob, that he had the feline’s paw stuffed and mounted to an ivory letter opener. He had the opener engraved saying, “C.D., In memory of Bob, 1862” so he could have a constant reminder of his old friend. The letter opener is now on display at the Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library."

13 Writers Who Really Loved Cats

They say that a dog is man's best friend, but these writers found solace—and occasional inspiration—in feline companions.

www.mentalfloss.com

Dennis, thanks for the Mark Twain Bible link, it looks like an interesting read.

"Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and at once a great light streamed into their dim heads. They had acquired knowledge. What knowledge -- useful knowledge? No -- merely knowledge that there was such a thing as good, and such a thing as evil, and how to do evil. they couldn't do it before. Adam and Eve now knew what evil was, and how to do it. They knew how to do various kinds of wrong things, and among them one principal one -- the one God had his mind on principally. That one was the art and mystery of sexual intercourse. To them it was a magnificent discovery, and they stopped idling around and turned their entire attention to it, poor exultant young things!"

 

[Walter Kittel]

I will second Dennis' recommendation of Letters From The Earth. It has a number of observations that will provide food for thought.

- Walter.

 

[Steve Christou]

Has the fat lady started singing yet? What happened to the bust of Churchill? Oh dear... I miss him already.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Gone to the basement again. Just like Labour treated him in 1945.

My results from the 23&Me DNA analysis have arrived. I thought I was 100% British mutt (English, Scot, Irish). In fact I am 1/3 Bavarian. There's zero percent Indian so those family stories about Choctaw Mary are bogus (see Liz Warren).

What's really strange is my Neanderthal heritage. I was found to have about the highest percentage of Neanderthal genes of the millions they have tested (96th percentile of population tested).

 

[Steve Christou]

Fascinating Dennis, as Spock would say. I wonder, was Mr. Neanderthal created in God's image? [Don't go there Steve]

The UK has recorded over 100,000 deaths from covid, the worst in Europe and the fifth country to do so in the world.

I suppose it's because we proud Brits never took the pandemic seriously, and probably still don't. We're doomed! [bursts into tears] How many of those people would have died anyway without a helping hand from covid?

I was seriously looking forward to seeing the um 'newish' Bond movie on the big screen some time this year but it's been pushed back to November and will probably debut on Netflix the way things are going. Oh the humanity!

Someone somewhere mentioned that the events in James Bond 25 will seem pretty trivial now after what's happened to the residents of planet Earth in the past 12 months.

On the Blu-ray / DVD front I've been buying box sets of old movies, since there aren't any new movies. Latest purchases were Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, Norman Wisdom (ye olde English comedian), W.C. Fields and and Abbott & Costello box sets. Will I ever watch them? Maybe.

"I'm bored Tarzan"
"Jane want banana?"
"Yes please!" , "Hey Tarz where are you going?", "Come back!"

 

[Ruz-El]

" How many of those people would have died anyway without a helping hand from covid?"

Literally every person on earth? If you're on medication, caught covid and then died, then you died of covid. Just because someone has some sort of medical deal that is completely manageable to live a normal life doesn't mean that it's okay if they die of covid because they were more at risk or whatever.

This rationalizing the deaths of old people/people with medical issues as "ready to die/no loss" is a real pet peeve due to having my life impacted grossly simply by trying to make sure my 81 year old mom doesn't catch it and die.

 

[Steve Christou]

That's not really what I meant Russell. It's a big terrible statistic for the tiny UK and I want to know if the government has augmented it in some way by including people that were already dying of something just before covid hit. Old and young.
Btw a cousin of mine has recently tested positive for covid and has self isolated. He is 40 years old and feeling pretty miserable as you might imagine.

 

[Elizabeth S]

Hi folks,
It's now been one year since my last trip to Vegas. Being that I normally go 4 - 5 times a year, I've been missing it so much. But my Vegas bands aren't allowed to play anyway, so I wouldn't go without that. I've had 2 of my Keith Urban concerts there cancelled and my Scorpions/Queensryche and Judas Priest concerts were postponed. One of them is set for May, but I bet it's postponed again.
I've been watching my usual movies/TV as well as doing a lot of reading. I haven't had any foster kitties for a couple of months, but kitten season will soon be here. I've now fostered 35 kitties!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Hi Elizabeth!

 

[Steve Christou]

 

[Steve Christou]

 

[Mike Frezon]

 

[Steve Christou]

My recent blu-ray purchases - A Man for All Seasons and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, both released by Eureka with booklet and extras. Witness for the Prosecution looks tempting.

It's time for 'spot the difference in poster artwork'!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

 

[Steve Christou]